Real Living Space

I just attended a11’s second year anniversary this weekend, and aside from the fact that I was sloshed by 9pm, I totally loved what I saw.

A11 is one of those home/lifestyle stores that visiting it is an event in itself. I blogged about it early last year, and to recap, it’s designer Eric Paras’s showrooms for the collective work of 11 Filipino interior and product designers, architects and artists (I think there are even more now) and all these are displayed in lovely vignettes within several 1940s houses in a beautiful Pasay compound.

Now a11 is two years old, and they have a new line as well, called Triboa Bay Living. It has the same elegant yet contemporary lines that are very a11, yet with more rustic texture, slightly resort-y details, that still can be used in an urban setting. Most of the furniture is made out of white ash, so that’s where the texture comes from—the raised grain, and the contrast of the dark grain against the slightly paler hues of the wood. Here are some of the pieces (sorry, it was incredibly dark!):

And of course, true to a11 form, on the ground floor pantry of the Triboa Bay house, they were selling everything but the kitchen sink. My friends snapped up these cute creamware water jugs for about P350+ each. They were also selling solid marble plate chargers, glazed bowls, and beautiful solid wood chopping boards.

Also, in the first a11 house, they were selling designer Ricky David’s pretty, country-Euro lamps!

As usual, my snapshots suck; so best to see it all in person. Visit a11 at 2680 FB Harrison St., Pasay City. A tip: don’t forget to drop by Avellana Art Gallery, also within that lovely compound.

I just posted my beautiful set of Charles and Ray Eames stamps from Jen, and today I just saw another beautiful collection, as spotted by Yummy magazine (read about Yummy here) editor Becky Kho—this lovely Alphabet of Design Classics poster from Blue Art Studio:

It’s got all my fave designers and their iconic creations, from letters ABC (Alvar Aalto, Harry Bertoia, and Achille Castiglioni) to XYZ (X3 by Marco Maran, Sori Yanagi, and ceramicist Eva Zeisel). I love it!

If you’re really mataray, put it in your child’s bedroom. But me, I’d just like to see it on my wall.

At the end of a rather harrowing, oddball week (harrowing na, oddball pa!), I got a delightful surprise in my mailbox: a set of Charles and Ray Eames commemorative stamps from my dear friend Jen M. This pane of 16 stamps, released by the United States Postal Service (USPS) this June and July, shows these two American designers’ most iconic mid-century-modern designs.

Forget the current slew of dumb celebrity couples, Charles and Ray is my favorite husband-and-wife-team! The couple created their modern designs in the 1940s and 50s made popular because of their simple, friendly lines, revolutionary methods of production, and playful colors. These furnishings were meant for mass-production fifty years ago, but because they are now modern classics, prices are quite prohibitive! The Molded Plywood Lounge Chair (second row, upper right) and the LCW chair (lower left) are the most popular, but my favorite designs are the Wire Chair and the very witty House of Cards (fourth row, second and last stamps) which is literally, an interlocking house of cards. I honestly don’t know if you can buy them here, but you might be able to order them online from the USPS website. In the meantime, check out more mid-century modern beauties in the August issue of Real Living, out soon.

Thanks, Jen, you made my week. I really love them!

I love summer and blue skies and dry, warm air, so it is no surprise that this Wednesday’s soggy weather makes me feel like crap on a stick.

So I immediately opened my friend Flying Trapeze’s blog, which is always filled with lovely, moody pictures, and saw this (which Flying Trapeze saw from that wonderful blog apartment therapy):

It’s actually artist Sam Spenser’s installation for a collective exhibit of artists working on the color yellow in London—which of course, has soggy weather most of the time. Wish I could see this outside my window.

I’ve always loved the Home Section of any Rustan’s Department Store. The pieces are really well-edited, and the service is excellent. One branch to check out right now: Rustan’s Shangri-la, which has been stocking up on romantic, and discreetly elegant items recently, such as distressed-finish finials, birdcages, snuffboxes and tableware. They also have beautiful LSA International vases:

And Rustan’s Makati carries Thomas Paul melamine plates, which are super-hot and trendy right now. I especially love the Victorian-style silhouettes and the coral patterns:

Love it! Now aside from shopping, you can add a bit of that Rustan’s style to your home by attending their workshops on home design and decoration, all divided into several themes to suit your taste and lifestyle, all to be held this month of July. Here’s the schedule:

WORKSHOP THEME/BRANCH
JULY 17
Modern Minimalist Style/Rustan’s Makati

JULY 18
“Shabby Chic” Style/Rustan’s Shangri-la Plaza, and Alabang

JULY 24
“Shabby Chic” Style/Rustan’s Makati

JULY 25
Country and Gardening/Rustan’s Shangri-la Plaza, and Alabang

JULY 31
Country and Gardening/Rustan’s Makati

Please proceed to the Home section of each branch. All talks start at 4PM. For more information, call the Concierge at (02) 813-3739 (Rustan’s Makati) and (02) 633-4661 (Shangri-la Mall)

We featured kids’ rooms and décor in the July 2008 ish of Real Living magazine (out on the stands now!). I don’t have children of my own, but I am still stumped as to where to find cool kiddie accessories for nephews, nieces, and inaanak because anything too koochy-koochy-koo just makes me want to gag.

I stumbled upon these lovely websites for the modernist baby. First up is Geniusjones. Check out these cool graphic crib sets (so mahal at US$368):

Another great site is the aptly named Modern Nursery. Look at their wooden toy boxes; after your kid has grown up, they’ll look great in any adult room:

Piccolini Online is stylish as well. Their tagline goes: “Everything urbane for you and your little ones.” Ang taray naman! They live up to it by selling these Alexander Calder-esque crib mobiles. Your baby will be cooing “MOMA” in no time.

Just wish these were all available locally. Oh well, just surf these sites for inspiration!

My friend Mabel got this lovely bird lamp from Cha, who snapped it up in IKEA in the UK. It’s really pretty! We loved it so much everyone started passing it around and posing with it

My question to the IKEA “sellers” here: do you have it? Do tell! It’s lovely! IKEA lamps have been improving. I don’t care much for the steel and white-shaded ones, but I really do like the Lykta Lamp, very Oluce in feel, don’t you think?

People photos by Mabel David. (Thanks, Mabel!)

I used to attend weekend painting classes at Pinto Gallery. Their oil-painting classes, taught by artist Andy Orencio, were laidback and friendly, and it was OK to miss a session, as you can pick up from wherever you last stopped and paint at your own pace. Andy was perplexed, though, because during one of the still life classes, he asked us to paint objects we really liked, so I painted shoes. I was no Modigliani, and the sessions for me were more for clearing my head than improving any latent skills. I continued painting on weekends in the province, but as work became more demanding, painting gave way to a more luxurious hobby: sleep.

Because I so missed painting at home, I was delighted to see my friend Marco set up a little painting corner in his home, in his covered backyard. It looks like this:

How cute. Like any decent studio, it has really good natural light in the afternoon, is cozy, and relatively quiet. Now Marco just does it for fun after his day job, and has produced quite a bit of small, figurative works that decorate the rest of his home.

I really do recommend painting as a hobby; it’s as comforting as playing with fingerpaints, albeit a bit more challenging; and you only paint to please one patron: yourself. There are quite a lot of amateur classes you can take, like at Art Informal at Connecticut St. in Greenhills (tel. 725-8515), Pinto (tel. 697-1015), occasionally, Ayala Museum (www.ayalamuseum.org), and My Little Art Place along Wilson St. (tel. 409-4122). Just promise me one thing—don’t do incoherent doodles and color washes and then call yourself the next big Abstractionist. (Photo of Jim Orencio by Dakila Angeles)

One of our midcentury-modern Scandinavian favorites, the Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen, has undergone a cute update, complete with New Pretty upholstery:

This new Egg is sold online at UK shop House to Home. As for me, I prefer my Egg Chairs over easy, upholstered in classic red or basic black. You can find those locally at Scandinavia Trend, 105rada, at Rada St., Salcedo Village, Makati City.